Bogus Voters in Bengal: Trinamool Delegation to Meet ECI’s Full-Bench

KOLKATA:
A ten-member delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs, from both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha will be meeting the full Bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday afternoon on the issue of bogus voters in West Bengal.

Incidentally, on Monday four-time Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member and senior advocate of Calcutta High Court Kalyan Banerjee raised his voice on the floor of the Lok Sabha on this issue, accusing the Election Commission of not acting transparently on this matter.

Political observers say that being vocal on this issue on Monday, the veteran party MP indicated that the ten-member delegation of party MPs would be quite vocal while placing their points of argument during the course interaction with the commission’s full Bench on Tuesday afternoon.

Trinamool Congress insiders said that during the interaction with the ECI later in the day, the delegation members will also be quite insistent on the demand for ensuring Unique IDs for the EPIC cards similar to those in Aadhaar cards and passports.

Already on March 6, a four-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress led by the party’s state vice-president in West Bengal Subrata Bakshi arrived at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal. The delegation submitted a memorandum on the matter highlighting the demand for ‘Unique IDs’ for the EPIC cards.

“During our course of deliberation with the ECI’s full Bench today, we will be insisting on a specific assurance from the latter on this matter along with a specific deadline,” said a member of the 10-member delegation.

The meeting has been fixed at 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The ten-member delegation will be led by the leader of Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien.

The other nine MPs are Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Kalyan Banerjee, Asit Kumar Mal, Sagarika Ghosh, Kirti Azad, Sazda Ahmed, Abu Taher Khan, Saket Gokhale, and Prakash Chik Baraik.

However, political rumblings have started in the corridors of power in West Bengal over Trinamool Congress’ general secretary and the party Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee’s name not figuring in the list of delegates to meet with the full Bench of the Commission.

Last week, Abhishek Banerjee did not even attend the crucial first meeting of the Trinamool Congress’ internal core committee constituted by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to screen the voters’ list in the state and identify the bogus voters there, although his name was in the second position in the list of core committee members.